1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an opening device for furniture parts which are movable relative to one another such as door leaves, flaps and the like which are pivotably articulated on a furniture carcass with an elongate ejector ram which is mounted so as to be longitudinally movable in or on a housing which can be fixed on one of the furniture parts which are movable relative to one another, wherein the ejector ram is biased by a spring with one end thereof into a position projecting out of the housing in the direction of the respective other furniture part and can be forced back against the spring bias into the interior of the housing, a locking device being provided which locks the ejector ram in the position in which it is retracted into the housing and can be unlocked by manipulation by a user.
2. Description of Related Art
For door leaves, flaps and the like which are articulated on the carcass of cabinets, closure fittings—for example catches—have been developed which are not only to be installed separately on the carcass or the door leaf but also integrated into the hinges which enable the pivot movement, and during the operation of closing a door leaf as it approaches the closed position these closure fittings pull the door leaf resiliently into the closed position and also retain it in the closed position. In order in this case to avoid or to reduce impact noises and vibrations of the piece of furniture, damping devices for the concluding closing operation of the door leaves have been developed recently which can also be mounted separately on the carcass or on the door leaf or can be integrated into the hinges.
In an attempt to avoid, for visual/aesthetic reasons, the handle fittings which are necessary for opening and closing the door leaves or flaps, so-called touch-latch fittings have been developed which apart from a locking function for the closed door flap are provided with an additional opening function which makes it possible for the door leaf situated in the closed position to be unlocked by a pressure additionally exerted in the direction into the interior of the carcass and to be endowed with a movement in the direction of opening by an integrated spring arrangement, so that the door leaf lifts off from the cabinet carcass by a small angular amount and it is possible to grip the rear face of the door leaf in the edge region and to open the door leaf—even without the presence of a handle fitting. Also such touch-latch fittings can be constructed as separate fittings which can be installed in the region of the carcass aperture or as fittings integrated into the hinge (e.g. DE 20 2004 019 238.1). A problem then occurs when, in the case of a piece of furniture, as the pivotable furniture part approaches the closed position a closing function—which if possible is also damped—and in addition an opening function corresponding to the function of touch-latch fittings is to be implemented, because then the spring tensions which effect the respective closing or opening function act in the opposing direction. The kinematic design of the touch-latch devices also means that the door leaf in the closed position must still have a certain play for movement in the closing direction in order to be able to release the door leaf from the closed position before the opening function is initiated. The gap which is inevitably necessary as a result between the rear face of the door leaf and the end faces of the carcass walls is undesirable in many cases both for visual/aesthetic reasons and also for practical reasons.